Grad requirement needs fine-tuning

Imagine for a moment that you're a high-school senior easing into these early days of spring with a glow of accomplishment.

Cap and gown? Check. College acceptance letter? Check. Summer vacation plans? Check! Sufficient credits in occupational education? Uh-oh.

A glitch tripping up a significant number of students is an obscure state requirement for one credit of occupational education, known as Occ-Ed, and its younger sibling, career and technical education, or CTE. That's two classes. In Seattle, which requires 1.5 credits, that's three classes.

Occ-Ed has come a long way from the days when it mainly served students who weren't going to college and didn't mind a semester making ashtrays. Classes are now constructed as mini-career explorations and include photography, Web design, business math and accounting.

But not music. In the Seattle School District, that omission is considered a slap in the face. I can see why. Students in the district's music programs are frequent winners of awards nationally and abroad. Think Eckstein and Washington middle schools. Think Garfield and Roosevelt high schools. Whether performing in Switzerland or at last month's 40th Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho, Seattle's musical talents are renown.

Most students, including those cramming in four years of foreign language or advanced-placement courses to qualify for select colleges, manage to fulfill their Occ-Ed requirements. Whether taking auto mechanics or a primer on Microsoft Office software, students tend to view these courses as an interesting diversion.

But music is atypical. Excellence requires copious numbers of classes, private lessons and, if one is good enough, internships and professional gigs. Add to this a full load of academic courses for the college-bound, and the four years of high school fly by quickly.

Ask Mary Batie. She is the mother of a 2004 graduate who was informed in March of his senior year he wasn't on schedule to graduate. The problem? Ryan Batie concentrated too much on his prodigious music talent. He played percussion for a pit orchestra at the University of Washington, interned at the ACT Theatre and hobnobbed with industry insiders such as Randy Newman, the Academy Award-winning musician and playwright.

Mary Batie turned into a mother bear, fur standing up, claws out. She refused to allow her son to regret tapping into a rich vein of music and artistic experience. Arguing that for students exploring a profession in music, classes and lessons are as de rigueur as math courses for an aspiring mathematician, Mary Batie got the district to waive the Occ-Ed requirement.

Waivers are technically forbidden by the State Board of Education and, although vigilance is lax, let's not incite a city full of mama bears. There is a simple solution. Seattle should design a music course that fulfills Occ-Ed requirement. Known as cross-crediting, districts around the state have done it with other subjects such as drama.

It would simply be a matter of retooling music curricula to include skill sets such as time management and leadership. Teachers would need experience as professional musicians in order to convey accurately a musical career, but my hunch is that is already the case in Seattle and a reason the city's programs rock.

No one is eschewing Occ-Ed and I wouldn't support them if they were. Skills that can be put to use for employment tomorrow are essential for any student, college-bound or not. Music ought to be welcomed into the fold. The challenge of high schools to better reflect the realities of students' lives isn't just an argument for struggling students. High-achieving students shouldn't be taken for granted.

Administrators in Seattle aren't keen on this idea. The head counselor at one high school told me that if music becomes a part of Occ-Ed he would abide by the rules. His voice dripped with distaste. Calls to the district's point person on Occ-Ed were turned over to the legal office, where I was given a primer on education rules and the challenge of music as both liberal arts education and occupational training.

Relief arrived in the form of Rod Duckworth, director of Career and Technical Education at the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

"The whole idea is to give students basic core skills for employment, whether in construction or as a musician," Duckworth said. "I'd be more than willing to sit down with (district officials)."

Duckworth should be taken up on his offer. My guess is he's less dangerous than the mama bear protecting her cub.

Lynne K. Varner's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is lvarner@seattletimes.com